There are lots of little secrets that can help you to build sales in your telemarketing unit.

But few things goose sales better or faster, than bringing an eagle into the room.

An eagle is someone who very quickly soars above everybody else, or if he’s shy of achieving the production of your leaders, he’s still swooping down on them, minutes, hours or days after hatching from training.

If you have to hock the family’s silverware, do it, if it means you’re going to get an eagle in exchange. How can one person be so important?

Eagles are valuable because they say several things through performance that you can’t credibly say with words, as the manager:

(1) To veterans, who are sitting on their laurels, they say, if you want to stay on top, you’re going to have to aim higher or get out of the way.

(2) To average salespeople, they say average isn’t good enough, you can no longer fly under the radar. There may be a lot of better producers in the incubator.

(3) To under-performers, they say, I told you we’d have to kick you out of the nest—we can’t feed you forever!

(4) To everyone, they announce that management is credible; it can duplicate or replace anyone, even the best performers, seemingly overnight.

In sum, eagles raise standards, and this is nearly impossible to accomplish on a permanent basis without them.

Sure, you have contests that temporarily boost sales, but after the prizes are handed out, performance can easily revert to lower levels, until the next contest comes along.

One more thing: Eagles communicate that you are improving, as well, in recruiting, training, and guiding your unit to higher and higher levels of performance.

It’s a tribute that you can truly be proud of having orchestrated.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.